As my first real post back, I will discuss the recent news of us signing Vlad Guerrero to a 1-year, 8 million dollar deal. Am I happy that he signed? Yes. But it is the best move for the future team? No.

Let me address the first point of the short term. This makes our lineup very good. The worse hitter in the lineup will be JJ Hardy, who batted a serviceable .268 for the Twins last year, an improvement over Cesar Izturis and his barnburning .230 average. We have now made improvements at 4 positions, first, third, short and left field. We now have multiple guys that are capable of hitting 30 homers, when last year we only had 1. The potential improvement in the infield could be very large from what it was at times last year. For example, on April 20th, we trotted out a lineup with the following infield: 1B Garett Atkins, 2B Julio Jugo, SS Cesar Izturis, and 3B Ty Wiggington. The best average out of those 4 was Wiggy, batting a stellar .248. Our lineup is vastly improved, and Vald just continues to do that, my providing another solid power source. This lineup could be nasty in 2011.

But what about the long-term? If this lineup gets above .500, I will be pleased. But I can’t help but look at the long-term. Vlad is a stopgap, a very good one at that, but he’s still a stop gap. But he is signed at a position where a stopgap isn’t really necessary, left field. We already have Felix Pie and Nolan Reimold, ready to battle out a spot and prove that one of them can be our left fielder for the next few years, when we will try to do something great. This only stalls their development for the future. What happens in 2012 (well other, then the world ending.) when Vlad’s contract is up? We’re in the exact same position, with Reimold and Pie, and neither of them has gotten much more experience with staring constantly in the majors and proving they can hit ML pitching consistently. While it’s easy to say “OMG, TEH ORILES HAVE A GR8 LINEUP, WE’RE GOING TO THE WORLD SERIES!!!!!!1111!!!11!” This isn’t the year where it seems most possible that the world series, or more simply, the playoffs seem realistic, giving our young staff another year to develop will be important, 2012 is the year that we should be really trying to make a playoffs run. So shouldn’t we use 2011 has a chance to see if we already have someone good enough to be a consistent day in-day out left fielder. If that answer is yes, and huzzah. If the answer is no, we search the open market and see who we can find to replace him. This year could be used as a year for potential development for the long-term future, but it’s not.

Well, I’m going to try to give this blog another go. A lot has happened in Birdland between September 2009 and February 2011, and I won’t be recapping all of it, but I’m back blogging. I will have a post today or tomorrow on the Vlad Guerrero situation, and possibly an off-season recap.

I thought of expansion and realignment in baseball has been buzzing around in my head a lot lately.

So here some cities that I can think off that the MLB could expand to.

Indy

Nawlins

Vegas

Charlotte/Raleigh

Montreal

Vancouver

Those are six cities that I MLB could expand to if did. I list two Candian cities becasue because I think that could really boost Canada’s interest in baseball, eh.

Believe me, if Montreal got a team they would sell out tickets once the news was announced. They would have some thing to prove. They want to show that that they do care about baseball and want to show everyone that you will never again see Olympic Stadium so empty for a baseball game.

I also suggest Vancouver since if it can host the Olympics it certainley can host a baseball team. Plus I think Mariners vs. Team Vancouver could be a very good rivalry.

If all 6 six team where to be expasion teams the divison could look like this.